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Brian’s 550km ride for sick kids

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Rodney StevensClarence Valley Independent

When Brian Elvery was offered the opportunity to ride his bicycle more than 500km to raise money for Ronald McDonald House he didn’t hesitate to accept.

Last week, along with a core group of a dozen other cyclists plus support crew, Mr Elvery got in the saddle on Tuesday at Inverell, for the 2022 Ronald McDonald House Northern NSW Ride For Sick Kids, aiming to raise $200,000.

The retired 64-year-old high school science teacher from Gulmurrad, who has been an avid cyclist for many years, said the opportunity to raise money to help sick children and their families, while enjoying a great ride with likeminded people was a privilege.

“Because I’ve known David Lovell from First National Real Estate at Yamba for years, he said they had a spare spot on the ride and asked if I wanted to come,” Mr Elvery said.

“I’m a pretty keen cyclist, so when I heard about the ride I said, ‘yeah give me a week’s riding and I will go.’

“I knew where we were going, so I was pretty happy to sign up to raise money to help sick kids and their families.”

After the first leg of the ride to Armidale, Mr Elvery said the riders pedalled to Tamworth, then Muswellbrook, Scone and finally to John Hunter Hospital’s Ronald McDonald House.

Each night, Mr Elvery said they would have dinner at a restaurant or a pub that had been involved in raising awareness of and raising significant funds for Ronald McDonald House.

“Most people are just rolling through life and it’s not until something happens when you have an accident or have somebody who’s sick that they’ll possibly use Ronald McDonald House,” he said.

“Along the ride each day we would meet up with a school or a preschool where either a child or a parent who had been involved with Ronald McDonald House had so many wonderful things to say about its benefits.

“There’s kids who have spent, days, weeks, even months there and to basically change everything in your family, sometimes at a moment’s notice and then be away for months from the rest of your life is difficult in all ways, not just financially, but socially as the rest of the family has to cope as well.

“They said it would have been impossible for them to cope without it.

On some days, Mr Elvery said the pack of cyclists expanded from the core group as locals joined in.

“We were joined by like-minded people in some of the towns, maybe up to 16 cyclists at some times,” he said.

“They would either ride through the town with us or ride with us for the day.

“Each day’s cycling distance varied, from 130km on the first couple of days to 80km on the last couple of days.

“There was a bit of climbing on the first day and the conditions were fantastic over the last couple of days, but the first couple of days it was cold, with quite a few hills and a bit of a breeze.

“The idea was to raise awareness about Ronald McDonald House in the towns we went to so hopefully we achieved that.”

Ronald McDonald House has 18 accommodation venues at hospitals in all states of Australia except the Northern Territory, plus 19 family rooms in hospitals, five family retreats around Australia and it administers the Ronald McDonald Learning Program to help sick kids catch up with their education.

“The highlight for me was to see how big a charity Ronald McDonald House was, there’s 600 kids a year that are helped by the charity, and that’s just at Newcastle alone,” Mr Elvery said.

“There’s a house in Newcastle and there’s also a house in Tamworth so we were involved in raising money for Ronald McDonald House Northern NSW.

“I just didn’t realise how many people from all over Australia are helped by this charity and I think a lot of people would be surprised about all the great work they do.

“It wasn’t just the riders who were raising money, the support crew of about eight, all of them got behind it and were raising money the whole way.”

After five days and 550km, Mr Elvery said he was proud to be involved when it was revealed the 2022 Ride for Sick Kids had raised almost $270,000.

“I do a few k’s on the bike, so the body didn’t pull up too badly, but it was a challenge,” he said.

“When you’re out on the bike and hurting a bit that just pales in comparison to what some of the sick kids and their families go through.”

To donate to Ronald McDonald House Northern NSW visit https://nnswfundraising.rmhc.org.au/event/ride-for-sick-kids-nth-nsw

Clarence Valley Independent 14 September 2022

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 14 September 2022.

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